Federer and Thiem Triumph in Home Tournaments
Roger Federer continued his dominance of the Basel Open, winning his 10th Basel and 103rd ATP title by beating Alex de Minuar 6-2 6-2 in a one sided final. De Minaur, despite having had an excellent week, found himself simply unable to deal with Federer’s aggression and excellent variety off the backhand side. Buoyed by the home crowd, Federer raced to victory in 68 minutes to win his 4th ATP title this year.
“It was fast but very nice. I think I played a great match. It was a tough opener, in the beginning, the first five games, we had some great rallies,” said Federer. “I was great on the offence, made very few unforced errors and came up with the big shots and served well when I had to. “I thought Alex played a great tournament as well, and I think we both can be very happy. But what a moment for me to win my 10th here in my hometown of Basel.”
Federer will now skip next week’s Paris Masters to be ready for the ATP World Tour Finals in London, where Federer already has 6 titles. Federer is now only 6 titles behind Jimmy Connors’s unmatched 109 titles. Federer is already 38 so will struggle to catch up to Connors before the end of his career, but has already committed to next year’s Tokyo Olympics, so will continue playing for a little while longer at least.
In Vienna, Dominic Thiem realised a childhood dream by claiming his maiden title at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, defeating his good friend Diego Schwartzman 3-6 6-4 6-3 in an extremely high-quality final which lasted 2 hours and 25 minutes. Victory in Vienna, combined with his title in Kitzbühel means that Thiem completes the Austrian double, holding a 9-0 record in his home country this year.
“It’s been an unbelievable year for me in Austria, to win titles in Kitzbühel and now here in Vienna, I have had some troubles to deliver my best tennis in front of these amazing crowds in Kitzbühel and also here in Vienna and now, in the same year, I win both titles. It is completely unreal to me.” said Thiem
Thiem now leads the way for most titles won on the ATP Tour this year, having claimed 5, one ahead of Medvedev, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. This statistic also serves to highlight the dominance shown by the World’s Top 5 this year, claiming an impressive 21 titles between them. Thiem now goes into the Paris Masters, where he reached the semi-finals last year, in terrific form and will be looking to continue this past Paris through to the World Tour Finals, to which he has already qualified.
There will be a theoretical 8-way race for the last two spots in London, with Matteo Berretini and Alexander Zverev looking the most likely to qualify. However, nothing is guaranteed yet, and both Zverev and Berrettini must reach the final in Paris to ensure qualification or must hope that those chasing them have a poor week and cannot overtake them.
Written by Emre Saridogan